“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Mary Oliver

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Do students come to your classroom year with reputations? Well. Yes. And–I’m struggling with the past clinging to some students. That’s about as diplomatic as I’m can muster right now. How Black Girls Aren’t Presumed to Be Innocent THE PRESENCE OF JUSTICE A new study finds that adults view them as less child-like and less in need of protection than their white peers. ADRIENNE GREEN JUN 29, 2017 A growing body of evidence has shown that the American education and […]

Twitter, well, Twitter is a lot of things but it does provide some great discussion/debate threads if you’re patient to find the gems. Here are five threads that gave me some ideas for discussion questions: What causes poverty: moral failures or society’s failures? (*remember, in strong argumentative reasoning there is always the third rail) Once again, we continue to treat poverty like a moral failure. Thank you for your contribution and being the conductor on a train that is never […]

We all know this isn’t about cake. I’m trying to sort this out for my own sake, and then for my students’. Cornell Law Review Link. Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Here is a chart I put […]

Sometimes we teachers may grow cynical about the ‘career and college’ ready mission statement. It’s not hard to see why: when our nation voted gave corporations the same voting rights as human beings we knew we were in deep trouble. To avoid that rabbit hole, I’ll just say this: we still work, and one of our jobs as teachers is to show students the opportunities and pathways so they can make the work-life decisions for themselves with the best and […]

My big question this morning: how do we teach, and learn, to think critically? Not the surface-level fluff–but the hard questions, the wrestling with the trifecta of intellectual stagnation: cognitive dissonance, justification, and rationalization? Do we need heroes/heroines? What would happen…if…we…didn’t? What if…we were good to each other, did no harm, and made our classrooms, lecture halls, and online spaces engaged and safe places to discuss questions and seek ideas and answers? Consider and read this thread: keep track and curate […]

Amy Rasmussen wrote a piece for Three Teachers Talk: What if We Teach as if Teaching is a Story? And this– Last week I attended a professional development meeting with George Couros, author of the Innovator’s Mindset. I jotted tons of Couros’ quotes in my notebook, all important to the kind of teacher I keep striving to become: “How do you cultivate questions of curiosity and not compliance?” “Data driven is the stupidest term in education.” “Your childhood is not their childhood. Nostalgia […]

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FMasterofNone%2Fvideos%2F10155663085403658%2F&show_text=0&width=400 Aziz Ansari recently put himself on an internet diet, and maybe the rest of us should follow suit. I bought the full-meal deal from Freedom a year ago, and it’s been buggy ever since, and the customer support is confusing, but I’ll keep trying. I’ve tried to limit myself: making jewelry again, just reading (though it is on an i-pad/Kindle), and doing other things…but it’s been tough. All I’ve succeeded in doing is making a mess. This next week […]

Recently a post on social media got to me to thinking: (well, overthinking? *shrug*) After a thread and reflection, I am trying to answer some questions: Does context play a role in teaching (anymore)? Just about “everything” can be “Googled” – how do we navigate and help students find the correct information? What is the nature of teaching with abundant access to information and misinformation? A post from the New York Times, “In an Era of Fake News, Teaching Students […]

This September, right from the get-go, around Constitution Day (which falls on a Sunday this year), I shall share a unit on the Declaration of Independence, sparked by this exchange. And it’s here, too. And from this thread, I learned so much. Mother Jones — of the United Mine Workers — was once arrested for reading the Declaration of Independence. https://t.co/QNxcj1wAou — Charles Miles (@CSheehanMiles) July 5, 2017 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js So folks didn’t know that NPR’s annual reading of the Declaration of […]